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FASB and IASB, the two key global financial regulators have recently updated their guidelines on revenue recognition in financial terms through ASC 606 in the US and IFRS 15 its international equivalent. This has the potential of disrupting the current accounting practices for most sales organizations. It will start with some publicly listed companies and by 2018 all companies will have to comply with it.

So, what’s changing and how does it impact you?

The good part is that the overall sales compensation plans or designs will not be affected by the new regulations. You can still execute your planned vision with regards to your sales compensation strategy, albeit the way your accounting team accrues commission expenses gets changed drastically. The basic premise on which both ASC 606 and IFRS 15 have been formulated is that an organization can recognize revenue and the corresponding expenses from a contract only when the customer is satisfied. What it means is revenue recognition is no longer dependent on the realization of internal events such as successful delivery made to the customer or the passage of a certain amount of time.

Obviously, it makes the simple process of expensing sales compensations a lot more complex, especially for companies that enter into intricate multi-year contracts with their customers. The finance teams of these companies will have amortize commission expense for their sales teams over the entire length of contract. For eg. if a sales person gets into a three-year contract with a customer and gets $ 100,000 as commission, then this amount cannot be expensed in the year the contract was signed. Rather, it will have to be amortized over the three-year term of the contract.

Now, it gets a lot more complicated in cases where the contracts have elements such as variable service deliverables, floating terms and conditions and dynamic pricing in them. Some companies may want to take the easy route and expense all sales commissions immediately for the sake of simplicity. But by doing so they will not be presenting an accurate financial picture of the company to its stakeholders. The larger enterprises and publicly listed companies cannot afford to do that. They will have to find ways to manage the change of accounting standards without burdening their already overworked staff with additional workload.

So, what can you do?

It’s going to get a lot more difficult to manage the sales commissions manually on an excel as it will not only put unnecessary pressure on the finance teams but also lead to several errors. Accountants will have to diligently track all those parameters that affect a sales person’s commission including the quality of work delivered and the nature of the contract. That’s next to impossible.

If configured correctly, your sales compensation software can overcome these challenges and simplify the process of tracking the amount of sales commission that has to be expensed in a year. Here’s how it can help you:

Distinguish between contracts that are for a duration of one year or less and those greater than a year and maintain separate calculation methodologies for the two.

Distinguish between direct sales commissions and incentive compensation that supervisors receive for the performance of their teams. While the latter must be expensed immediately, the former has to be amortized for a longer duration and realized as per the rules of the new accounting standards.

Provide a holistic picture of the commissions expenses over several years to the sales head, so he can plan the sales strategy in a more decisive and accurate manner.

Manage frequent changes in the contract and facilitate seamless accounting for them.

If you were already thinking of implementing a sales performance management system in your company, now is the right time. The new accounting regulations are just another reason why you should invest in an SPM system, but I think you can see the bigger picture as well. Don’t you?

I have observed a wide range of organizational structures for Sales Performance Management (SPM) operations. Compared to any other organizational operation, SPM operations are somewhat an oddball because there is no single department in the organization that is a natural fit to take full ownership. Roles and responsibilities are often undefined and spread across multiple functional groups. There isn’t a standard best demonstrated structure that fits all businesses. The SPM operational responsibilities are by and large split evenly between the HR, Finance, and Sales Operations teams.

To ensure the most effective practices, the organizational responsibilities should be assigned to the most qualified, and experienced resources available in the organization. Anticipated business changes, in addition to the existing workload, should be a factor in deciding how to build SPM organization.

If, at any given time, a particular department needs to focus their attention on other critical business issues, they should be excused from SPM’s operational responsibilities. For example, HR may be dealing with high turnover, core HR system installations, or a lack of experienced resources needed to manage programming staff. Likewise, Finance and Sales Management, and Sales Operations will have their own specific challenges. In fact, Sales Operations may be viewed as too closely controlled by Sales Management to be appropriate gate keepers for commissions and bonus payments. Nevertheless, each one of the organizational options can be designed with all the appropriate management controls.

The right resources in any one of the three departments can produce excellent SPM operations results. For most companies, an evaluation of current talent and performance is needed to select the team with the highest probability for success. Once the dedicated SPM operations group has been selected, it can function successfully under the guidance of any one of the three departments.

The following three steps will help guide a company through the organizational set up:

SPM Advisory Board

The company should setup an SPM advisory board to oversee and approve changes to compensation plans and processes. The approval process will involve many aspects, such as legal issues, HR compensation policy, cost analytics, strategic financial decisions, sales management objectives, systems capacity, security, performance issues, etc. The senior advisory board should be the governing body that makes the final decisions for all SPM related projects and investments. A well functioning board will give the SPM operations team clear and timely direction so they can deliver effectively on companywide pay for performance objectives.

The senior leadership group should be comprised of representatives from HR, Finance, Legal, Sales Management, and Technology. Once the most qualified department is selected for direct SPM responsibilities, the board should monitor the performance of the dedicated team responsible for all SPM operations. The most senior SPM manager should have a seat at the advisory board meetings.

RACI Chart

Once the SPM organization is formed, the detailed responsibilities and scheduled interaction with the advisory board should be documented. Every company should put together a RACI chart to outline various functions involved in SPM and clearly define responsibilities and ownerships around these. Sample RACI Chart can be downloaded here. The best SPM organizations have “end to end” process responsibilities–from data capture, vendor management, SPM system design, plan development, pay calculations, testing, and reporting, to on-going support. Effective management of these end to end processes insures that the SPM team delivers accurate and timely results critical to maintaining excellence in sales performance.

Another important role of the SPM team is to keep the advisory board apprised of systems development, data or calculation issues, company sales payout trends, resource requirements, and all other operational factors impacting pay plans, projects, and cost.

Flexible Staffing Model

SPM operations usually require close interaction with the company’s IT organization, HR payroll staff, Financial Planning, Sales Management, New Product Marketing, and Legal departments. Due to the quick turnaround requirements, and the impact of revised or new annual compensation plans, SPM is best managed with a flexible resource pool.

Incremental resources from other departments, vendors, or outside consulting firms are frequently required to meet project deadlines. It is unlikely that a cost effective Sales Operations team can deliver a new compensation plan within 60 to 90 days using only in-house staff and management. SPM organizational resource needs are fluid, project based, and sometimes seasonal. The quality and timeliness of the incremental resources are often critical to the success of delivering pay for performance responsibilities.

In summary, org structure for SPM operations is unique for every company. An SPM advisory board can provide guidance and decisiveness. A RACI chart helps clarifying who does what, and creating a flexible staffing model will ensure an effective SPM operation.

About the Author: George O’Connell has on premise and SaaS expertise in the area of Sales Performance Management (SPM) and Incentive Compensation Management (ICM). His experience includes design, development, operations, governance, and analytics for a company with $2.5 billion in sales to over 500,000 customers. He has managed SPM operations for a wide range of sales channels including telephone sales, sales executive channels, union contracts, new business start-ups, call centers, third party vendors, sales management plans, and director / sales VP compensation.

About Spectrum Technologies

Spectrum is a technology and business consulting firm offering specialized services in the area of Sales Performance Management (SPM) and Incentive Compensation Management (ICM). We help our customers both in end-to-end holistic SPM solutions and in specific tactical areas like Quota Management, Territory Management, Reporting/Data/Business analytics and Configuration/Price/Quote (CPQ).